Quote#Poetry
I have nothing to say for rhyme, but that I doubt whether a poem can…
Quote byAlexander Pope · 1688–1744
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Remark (1738?) quoted in Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men (1820) by Joseph Spence [published from the original papers; with notes, and a life of the author, by Samuel Weller Singer]; "Spence's Anecdotes", Section IV. 1737...39. p. 200.
English (original)
I have nothing to say for rhyme, but that I doubt whether a poem can support itself without it, in our language; unless it be stiffened with such strange words, as are likely to destroy our language itself.
— Alexander Pope
More from Alexander Pope
A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring: There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.
Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.
'Tis fixed, the irrevocable doom of Jove; No force can bend me, no persuasion move.
Well, if our author in the wife offends He has a husband that will make amends; He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving, And sure such kind good creatures may be living.
They dream in Courtship, but in Wedlock wake.